"Where is the Leadership?"

Esteemed Rabbi Writes to the 613 "Rabbis for Obama"

"I write to you at this time of dire trouble for our country and for Israel", says the renowned rabbi. "I cannot keep silent any longer."

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Arutz Sheva Staff, 03/10/12 07:30

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As Wednesday night's Romney-Obama debate approaches, a leading rabbi, who has formed the "Rabbis for Romney" group, has written an open letter to the list of mostly Conservative and Reform 613 "Rabbis for Obama", asking them to rethink their support of the incumbent president.

"I write to you at this time of dire trouble for our country and for Israel", begins the impassioned letter and goes on, "I cannot keep silent any longer. The voices of my father and my mother, survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, compel me to speak out -- with zeal."

The outspoken letter was written by Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth-El, Edison, New Jersey, lecturer at Yeshiva and Rutgers Universities, author of 12 books including the Holocaust Siddur and the Holocaust Haggadah, recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award and Chaplain of the Year Award from The New York Board of Rabbis for his efforts during and following 9-ll.

"Last week America was under attack. Our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were slaughtered by Muslim extremists. This was not a spontaneous 'protest' against an admittedly stupid video. This was an organized military assault, coordinated expressly for execution on September 11.

"Likewise, the 'protests' in Cairo at the American embassy where our flag was shredded and the black flaf of al-Qaeda was raised... Reliable sources say the US was forewarned of both attacks -- probably by Israel. But America's State Department ignored those warnings. Why?

"The Obama administration's reactions to these outrages was sadly typical. The very next day, President. Obama incongruously flew off to Las Vegas to raise funds. Lamentably, our government still apologizes for that inane video; made by an Egyptian Coptic.

"Where is the leadership here? What has such ongoing appeasement gotten us? President Obama once promised a 'reset' of America's relationship with the Muslim world. But the reality has been far different. The Islamic world holds us in greater contempt than ever, seeing Obama's America as weak and incapable...."

As far as Israel and Obama's behavior towards its Prime Minister are concerned, the rabbi did not mince words, writing, "...Obama's policy toward Israel has been a disgrace from the start. It's as if his goal is to disenfranchise himself -- and America -- from the Jewish state..."

"The same signal comes from Obama's latest snub of Bibi Netanyahu -- who was told that Obama did not have time to meet with him when the Israeli Prime Minister arrived in America last week. Meanwhile, he found time to regale on the David Letterman show and also had time to chit chat with Barbara Walters and Whoopie Goldberg on the TV show the View. To his discredit, Obama also extended an open invitation to Egypt's President Morsi."

He asks the Jewish religious leaders, "What are your excuses for President Obama now?" and then sums up the dangers of current foreign policy as he sees them:

"Silence did not work in the 1930s, when the looming evils of Nazism could have been stopped in their tracks. Nor will it work today when Islamists, who deny the Holocaust, threaten the destruction of Israel and all the Jews and Christians therein.

"Why does the United States say nothing about the daily denigration of Jews and Christians by Imams worldwide?

"Why do we tolerate an American media that continues to play dumb when our real interests, and our very lives, are at stake?

" Why doesn't America compel Morsi to uphold the peace treaty with Israel? To rein in Hamas? To act like a responsible, civil government?

"And of utmost importance, why don't we rabbis come together and insist that the Obama administration express -- in words and in deeds -- their unequivocal support for Israel during this most challenging of times?

"I started "Rabbis for Romney" as a counterweight to 'Rabbis for Obama,' he explains. "My message at first was not political, but the situation has evolved -- or devolved -- into one where the danger to Israel is more paramount than ever. Don't kid yourselves. We are nearing the 11th hour," the letter ends.